Thursday, February 7, 2013

I just received this press release from the Rotal British Columbia Museum -

Victoria, BC – Follow the lanterns into Tradition in Felicities: Celebrating 155 Years of Victoria’s Chinatown, a display on Canada’s oldest Chinatown, featuring a unique artifact, images and stories from the collection of the Royal BC Museum, from Feb. 7 to Sept. 29, 2013. This display reveals a close-knit community of families developing new identities as Chinese Canadians and the felicities – the joyful celebrations of traditional Chinese holidays – that united and strengthened them since their first arrivals in the mid-1800s.

Four families from different walks of life recall, in video interviews, the period from 1930 to 1970 and their annual celebrations of the Chinese New Year. These are the personal views of this last generation to grow up in Victoria’s Chinatown, including the Low family. Kai Ho Low was one of the donors listed on the Chinese Freemason’s lantern, a unique item, part of a growing collection representing BC’s diverse communities at the Royal BC Museum.

‘This display is the result of an important partnership with the Victoria Chinese community,” said Professor Jack Lohman, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal BC Museum. “Generating a variety of cultural perspectives, then pairing those with the rich collections from the museum and archives, help us tell BC's diverse stories."

The centrepiece is one of a kind – the oldest-known Chinese Freemason’s lantern from Victoria’s Chinatown – and was likely on display for the Lantern Festival in the 1930s. Hand-made from paper over a bamboo frame, this large traditional ‘running-horse’ style of lantern used the heat from lights or candles to power an intricate system of wheels and long black hairs used like puppet strings. These moved parts of the lantern to animate scenes from nature set among stencil-like decorations, freemason’s symbols, hand-lettered poems and the names of the lantern’s original community sponsors.

The lantern is too fragile to operate as it once did. It arrived at the museum in poor condition with many parts broken or missing. The museum’s object conservator will be a live exhibit – a rare opportunity to see expert staff at work – using science-based treatments to stabilize and preserve the lantern while visitors look on, Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm until Sept. 29th.

On Sunday, February 24, 2:00 p.m. at the Ste-Elisabeth Parish Hall, 47 Ste-Elisabeth Road, Cantley, Quebec (just north of Gatineau – right across from Ottawa), there will be an illustrated talk given by Carol Martin, called Discovering History in Cemeteries.

Everyone is invited to our tea party – an illustrated talk, our annual meeting and some sharing of family photos, archives and memories of Cantley’s early years. Cantley 1889 is looking for contacts for material for our archives; you are encouraged to bring photos and momentos of your family’s past. …free admission, everyone welcome

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Booklet #1 - The War of 1812: Canada and the United States

The booklet, “The War of 1812: Canada and the United States”, gives a synopsis of the causes of the War, and details the battles that took place (who, where, and when), and which included British forces, Blacks, and Aboriginal warriors who fought on both sides of the conflict.

Booklet #2 – Migration: Canada and the United States

These headings offer good examples of those who came to Canada, or of Canadians who left for the U.S, and why. The booklet gives a synopsis of what records to look for, the books written on the subject, where to find online resources, and a bonus list of some famous Canadians who migrated to the U.S.